Rep. John Lewis Flips to Obama

In my opinion, Rep. John Lewis is the greatest living American. I have few heroes. John Lewis is my hero. If you want to know why, read his autobiography Walking With the Wind. I was disappointed when I learned that Lewis had endorsed Hillary Clinton, but I knew that Lewis had a long and close relationship with the Clinton family. Well, John Lewis has changed his mind.

Representative John Lewis, an elder statesman from the civil rights era and one of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s most prominent black supporters, said Thursday night that he planned to cast his vote as a superdelegate for Senator Barack Obama in hopes of preventing a fight at the Democratic convention.

“In recent days, there is a sense of movement and a sense of spirit,” said Mr. Lewis, a Georgia Democrat who endorsed Mrs. Clinton last fall. “Something is happening in America and people are prepared and ready to make that great leap.”

Mr. Lewis, who carries great influence among other members of Congress, disclosed his decision in an interview as the Service Employees International Union was on the brink of endorsing Mr. Obama.

His comments came as fresh signs emerged that Mrs. Clinton’s support was beginning to erode from some other African-American lawmakers who also serve as superdelegates. Representative David Scott of Georgia, who was among the first to defect, said he would not go against the will of voters in his district, who overwhelmingly supported Mr. Obama last week.

John Lewis carries more than great influence. Excepting Martin Luther King Jr., no one did more for the Civil Rights Movement than John Lewis.

That’s Lewis at Selma (on the right) shortly before he had his head split open.

Here he is during one of his 24 arrests.

 

Author: BooMan

Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.

17 thoughts on “Rep. John Lewis Flips to Obama”

  1. I know this is politics, and everyone can be criticized, but those pictures always stop me in my tracks. He was so brave and courageous.

    Right now, all I can do is feebly mumble Thank you, Rep. Lewis and leave it there.

      1. my cuz in GA tells me, “Glad he saw the light and felt the heat from his GA constituents….MLK Jr.’s dream is unfolding.”  

        No disrespect to Rep. John Lewis, but what a difference a month makes?

        We were disappointed when Lewis, parroting Clinton who has always used us like a kleenex, said:

        “Barack Obama is no Martin Luther King Jr. I knew Martin Luther King…He’s no Robert Kennedy..he’s not JFK. You need someone who is prepared to provide bold leadership.”

        Now

        In recent days, there is a sense of movement and a sense of spirit. Something is happening in America, and people are prepared and ready to make that great leap… I’ve been very impressed with the campaign of Senator Obama. He’s getting better and better every single day.”

        This reversal is a significant blow to the Clintons. He joins super-delegate Christine “Roz” Samuels in NJ.

        Lewis’ move now sets the pace for others to jump fence.several BC members are weighing buyer’s remorse.

        Can’t get this song out of my head: “Something is happening here.”
         

  2. There aren’t many people on the planet willing to put their bodies on the line to make life better for the rest of us. My political activism began in a poetry class when the teacher passed around Greenpeace’s magazine, and I saw people putting their lives on the line, standing between the harpoon and the whale.

    I have such respect for the people who marched in the sixties for not just their rights, but our rights. Our right to live in a colorblind society, where “all men are created equal” was not just a myth, but a reality.

    I wondered who would be the first to jump ship. I fully expected some delegates would switch. But wouldn’t you know it take someone as brave as John Lewis to again lead the way, forge the path, endure the hatred, and do the right thing for all of us.

    Thank you, Congressman Lewis.

  3. I saw this earlier and it made me happy.  I’ve thought about it, though, because I don’t want to ever think that all white women have to vote for the white woman candidate or that all black men and women have to vote for the black candidate. That isn’t the world I want to see.

    The thing is, we all don’t come to elections from the same place.  We bring our experiences and lack of experiences with us.  And when someone was a part of a movement for change and put him or her self on the line for that change, it doesn’t make sense to me that they wouldn’t support the person who represents the change they’ve been working for all these years.  

    In the same way that it made sense to me for Gloria Steinam to endorse Hillary Clinton, it makes sense to me for John Lewis to endorse Barack Obama.  It doesn’t in either case mean that someone who was not a leader in their movement has to come to the same conclusion.  But it just seems the right thing to do for each of them, given what they were working toward accomplishing.

    2. On March 7, 1965 — a day that would become known as “Bloody Sunday” — Lewis and fellow activist Hosea Williams led over 600 marchers across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. At the end of the bridge, they were met by Alabama State Troopers, who ordered them to disperse. When the marchers stopped to pray, the police discharged tear gas and mounted troopers charged the demonstrators, beating them with night sticks. Lewis’s skull was fractured, but he escaped across the bridge, to a church in Selma. Before he could be taken to the hospital, John Lewis appeared before the television cameras calling on President Johnson to intervene in Alabama.

      Scenes of the violence, and of the injured John Lewis, were broadcast around the world, and outraged public opinion demanded that the President take action. Two days later, Dr. King led 1,000 members of the clergy on a second march from Selma to Montgomery, with the eyes of the world watching. A week and a day after Bloody Sunday, President Johnson appeared before a joint session of Congress to demand passage of the Voting Rights Act, empowering the federal government to enforce the voting rights of all Americans. The passage of the voting rights act finally brought the federal government into the struggle, squarely on the side of the disenfranchised voters of the South.

      link.

      2. You know, I think his site’s description isn’t entirely accurate about that second march.  There were three marches and it was the third that went on to Montgomery.  

        Not that any of it affects Lewis’ heroic role – I just like to be accurate.

        The park service has this more complete account of the actual marches:

        The Selma-to-Montgomery March for voting rights ended three weeks–and three events–that represented the political and emotional peak of the modern civil rights movement. On “Bloody Sunday,” March 7, 1965, some 600 civil rights marchers headed east out of Selma on U.S. Route 80. They got only as far as the Edmund Pettus Bridge six blocks away, where state and local lawmen attacked them with billy clubs and tear gas and drove them back into Selma. Two days later on March 9, Martin Luther King, Jr., led a “symbolic” march to the bridge. Then civil rights leaders sought court protection for a third, full-scale march from Selma to the state capitol in Montgomery. Federal District Court Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr., weighed the right of mobility against the right to march and ruled in favor of the demonstrators. “The law is clear that the right to petition one’s government for the redress of grievances may be exercised in large groups…,” said Judge Johnson, “and these rights may be exercised by marching, even along public highways.” On Sunday, March 21, about 3,200 marchers set out for Montgomery, walking 12 miles a day and sleeping in fields. By the time they reached the capitol on Thursday, March 25, they were 25,000-strong.

        Even that account isn’t entirely accurate regarding the interplay between the marchers and the federal courts (which, by the way, was a branch of the federal government that had moved to the side of the disenfranchised long before Johnson did).

        The connection between the heroic people like John Lewis who were fighting on the ground in the civil rights movement and the federal judiciary is one reason among many why I am a one-issue voter this fall – the right to appoint federal court judges, including Supreme Court judges.

  5. Might want to update this one.  It appears that he has clarified his statement to indicate he’s considering voting for Obama but isn’t committed to it.  Or something like that.

    1. Mr. Lewis, who carries great influence among other members of Congress, disclosed his decision in an interview in which he said that as a superdelegate he could “never, ever do anything to reverse the action” of the voters of his district, who overwhelmingly supported Mr. Obama.

      I don’t know, that sounds pretty definite to me.  Just sayin.

  6. There are very few people whose opinion would cause me to seriously consider changing my vote on anything.  John Lewis is one of them.  I probably just moved from notHillary to yesObama.  I know, not a really big difference to anybody but me.

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